Tag: Sansar

Last night I attended a Sansar meetup and a few things caught my attention. Obviously you can do social in Sansar, you don’t need a VR headset to get involved in a conversation, indeed with the text chat app you don’t need a headset of any sort, although the conversation was largely in voice and a voice headset definitely helps.

Some of the avatars moved, their arms would move when they spoke and I know at least one such avatar was wearing a VR headset but what took me more by surprise was the mouth movements and facial expressions of some of the avatars. At first I thought this was a feature of a VR headset but then one of the avatars mentioned that she was looking forward to getting a VR headset, but didn’t yet have one.

Now the facial expressions and mouth movement of this avatar had most caught my attention because at one time I’d convinced myself I could lip read her words.

I got an early peek at Sansar from Bjorn Laurin, VP of Sansar, and Jason Gholston, Product Director, on June 20 and was amazed by what I saw. The photo realism, the avatars and creation tools, the spectacular landscapes, the Sansar store, aren’t totally new to VR, but they are brought together in a simple, intuitive way to create a seamless continuous experience. What’s new is now a writer with limited technology skills can make a world in Sansar and open it to the public, even charge a fee.

I think it’s fair to say Charlie is impressed by what he sees and the potential for the platform going forward.

Second Life and virtual world explorers have been a bit more critical, although it should be pointed out that some well known Second Life content creators are very much embracing Sansar.

Virtual World explorer, writer and retired time traveller, Danko Whitfield sums up very well some of the different perceptions and why they may be happening :

What did I think? I dunno. If this was my very first virtual world experience, I think I’d be jazzed and would probably still be logged in now. But since I’m already experienced in virtual worlds, it’s left me with the same feeling I’ve had after looking inside at a new restaurant and checking the menu: Okay, looks nice. Maybe I’ll come back sometime.

I’ve been in other virtual world environments in their early days, Cloud Party and High Fidelity spring to mind and there’s a definite difference in the early days between creators wanting to get something to work and people who visit but are looking for exploration and socialising.

Sansar is still labelled as being in Creator Beta, but people’s expectations have been raised by the beta going public and there being no restrictions on whether people are creators or not, some people will be disappointed, some people will be delighted. I’m enjoying my exploration, I haven’t even dabbled with creation yet, although I almost certainly will.

Linden Lab’s Sansar went into public beta yesterday, which I’m sure many of you have noticed. What may not have been noticed (although there were hints if we’d paid closer attention), is that Sansar has a relationship with TurboSquid.

A relationship with TurboSquid provides creators with access to hundreds of additional high-quality 3D models in the Store today, with thousands more being added in the coming months. Planned integration with TurboSquid’s StemCell initiative will make it easy for TurboSquid’s community of 3D modelers to immediately upload and sell their creations in the Sansar Store, further augmenting the assets readily available to Sansar creators.

I’m only seeing around 15 items from TurboSquid in the Sansar Store but maybe TurboSquid creators have their items listed under their own name or maybe the link is a work in progress, but it’s an interesting development because TurboSquid have a very different attitude when it comes to Second Life.

In terms of getting started the process is relatively straight forward, you will need to register with your real details, the account creation page states :

During the course of your account or transaction history you may be required to submit to an information request to verify your identity. Please use accurate, current, and verifiable information.

So you will be faced with a screen like this :

These details are for your account, but once the account is created and you create your profile you will be able to choose an avatar name and avatar ID the first time you login and your avatar name will be the one that appears inworld.

Once your account has been created you will be all set to download the Sansar client. When you first login to the client, that is when you will be asked to create your avatar name and avatar ID. The link here is very important because it explains some important information about your avatar name and avatar ID, most notably than an avatar name is not unique :

Avatar Names are not unique and it is possible for multiple users to share the same Avatar Name. For example, there can be multiple users named “John Smith” in Sansar. However, while multiple users can have the same Avatar Name, they cannot have the same Avatar ID.

On the other hand, an Avatar ID is unique :

Your Avatar ID is a permanent ID that serves as a unique identifier for each user. This unique ID is linked solely with your account; no two users can have the same Avatar ID. For example, once a user uses “@johnsmith” as a Avatar ID, no one else can use “@johnsmith” as an ID and will have to choose a different one (For example, @johnsmith123).

At the moment, you cannot change your Avatar Name, but that may change, however an Avatar ID is permanent, therefore this is a very important step in the creation of your account and I really urge people to read the Avatar Name and Avatar ID page before creating their account.

Once you have created your avatar name you are then presented with the avatar creation screen, which has an number of default avatars, although it should be pointed out at this stage that none of them involve Dwarves or Elves!

SAN FRANCISCO – July 31, 2017 – Sansar™, the world’s leading social VR platform, today opened its creator beta to the public. Sansar empowers individuals, communities, schools, studios, corporations, brands and others to easily create, share, and ultimately sell immersive 3D social experiences for consumers to enjoy on HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and Windows PCs. Developed by Linden Lab®, the company behind the groundbreaking virtual world Second Life®, Sansar is a brand new platform built from the ground up to enable everyone to become a creator.

“Sansar democratizes social VR,” said Ebbe Altberg, CEO of Linden Lab. “Until now, complexity and cost has limited who could create and publish in this medium, and Sansar dramatically changes that. It’s been inspiring to see the thousands of virtual creations that have already published with Sansar during our limited preview, and I’m looking forward to the explosion of creativity we’ll see now that we’ve opened the doors in beta.”

What this all means is that if you have a PC capable of running Sansar, then you can go to the Sansar website now, register and get in to have a look around.

An important point to note is that of the system requirements, which can be found here. The specs differ depending upon whether you’re a VR user or a desktop only user, so pay close attention to those specs.